Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Cemex SAB, the largest cement maker
in the Americas, reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss as
advances in the U.S. and Latin American countries, excluding
Mexico, bolstered sales.

The net loss in the final three months of 2013 fell to $255
million from $494 million a year earlier, the Monterrey, Mexico-based company said today. Operating earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amortization, a profit measure known as
Ebitda, rose 4.2 percent to $642 million, trailing the $655.1
million average analyst estimate.

Cemex is benefiting from a housing comeback in the U.S.,
where builders began work last year on the most homes since
2007. An 8.3 percent sales increase in the U.S., where it gets
20 percent of revenue, helped boost Ebitda in the country to
almost six times the level a year earlier.

“The U.S. was the big winner for them relative to our
expectations.” said Todd Vencil, an analyst with Sterne, Agee &
Leach Inc., who has a neutral recommendation on Cemex’s American
depositary receipts.

Cemex rose 2 percent to 17.10 pesos at the close of trading
in Mexico City. Shares have gained 11 percent this year, the
second-biggest gain on the benchmark IPC index, which has
tumbled 5.7 percent in the same period.

U.S. Gains

In the U.S., Cemex’s Ebitda jumped to $77 million in the
fourth quarter from $13 million a year earlier, the company said
in a statement. U.S. cement volume may post a high-single-digit
percentage gain this year with a similar gain in ready-mix
concrete, according to forecasts released by Cemex.

January price increases in Florida and Colorado are showing
“favorable traction” and the company will raise prices in
other states in April, Cemex Chief Financial Officer Fernando
Gonzalez said.

While Mexico sales in the fourth quarter fell 5.6 percent
to $785 million from the year-ago period, demand improved
compared with the third quarter, Gonzalez said. Mexico generated
more Ebitda for Cemex than any other market last year.

“Declines in this country represent an important impact
for the company’s overall results,” Fernando Bolanos, an
analyst with Monex Casa de Bolsa who has a buy recommendation on
the shares, said in a telephone interview from Mexico City. “In
Mexico, we don’t expect volumes to improve until the third
quarter of this year.”

Mexico Comeback

Mexico is already showing signs of a rebound, Gonzalez
said, after last year’s 8 percent decline in Cemex’s cement
sales by volume in its home market. Government spending on
building projects accelerated late last year and Cemex’s cement
volume in Mexico will probably expand in 2014, boosted by public
works, industrial construction and do-it-yourself homebuilders.

“Our cement volumes for 2014 should grow in the mid-single-digits driven by a higher emphasis on infrastructure
spending” in Mexico, he said.